Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/21/the-first-trailer-for-marvels-wandavision-is-like-the-truman-show-mixed-with-superhero-horror.html
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It doesn’t sound very “Disneyish”.
And that paragraph explaining what the deal is/was/will be with these two is the main reason I avoid superhero stuff like the plague. I’m ok with comics that introduce magical or unexplainable elements, but these superhero world creators have absolutely no rules. They are like ludicrous soap operas, really.
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That 2015/2016 limited series was spectacular, and I did get a little bit of that vibe here. Although this is obviously not the same since Vision is supposedly dead and Wanda is not a manufactured wife.
Note: I have to agree, superhero comics are definitely soap opera in format. The longer they run, the more convoluted the back stories of the main characters become. None of which puts a dull on how much I love them.
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Which is exactly why I love this stuff.
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I think one of my complaints along this line is that it tends to lead to lazy story telling. They figuratively paint themselves into a corner, then just invent a new universe where that problem didn’t happen.
I will grant that it was refreshing to read a story about Superman landing in the Soviet Union. I’m not against change so much as perhaps the pace of it. It just seems to happen all the time, in countless iterations, and it’s hard to keep track of what’s going on.
Also, please get off my lawn. 
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If you were to stand on a street corner and start blabbering this nonsense, they would lock you up. But this is comic-book canon so you can make up whatever wild shit you want.
These deep-dives into character history is what drives many people away from these projects. Unless you are an ultimate fanboy/fangirl/fanZ , then I’m not gonna get all juicy inside when an Easter egg pops up in a scene. I saw that movie where she was with her brother, stuff happened and she hooked up with a robot. The next time they show up on the screen, I’m hoping I don’t need to read an epic 10-volume graphic novel to explain what is going on.
Who’s DNA she carries, the minor incident in issue #2 page 7… Maybe people just want to watch a movie or TV show and not have to seek out obscure materials to understand what they just saw.
Not even gonna get into Dune…
Someone should get in touch with whoever owns the rights to the Platters’ IP and count up the number of times that song has been used as the incongruous backdrop to a trailer or promo for some creepy/surreal/things-are-not-what-they-seem-in-this-pleasant-tableau thing.
I know for certain they used it in TV promos for reruns of The Twilight Zone in my youth, and I’d bet there have been four or five since then.
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I’m actually hoping for some kind of magical multiverse reset to the whole MCU just because it’s getting harder and harder to tell a relatable story in the post-Thanos timeline.
For example, in our timeline World War II was probably the most significant single event in the last century of our planet’s history. This was true even in the first few MCU films, which is why Captain America’s origin story was still compelling.
After multiple alien invasions, newly revealed proof that gods and magic are real, Wakanda’s technology shared with the world, and “the snappening” making half of all life disappear for five years World War II wouldn’t even crack the top five.
A reset button lets us relate to and care about small-scale storylines like Daredevil and Luke Cage. I also kind of think Spider-Man works better dressed in spandex rather than a superintelligent suit made of nanobots.
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Ummmm, could we make that the most recent century. Please?
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If you were to stand on a street corner and start blabbering this nonsense, they would lock you up.
I disagree, blabbing about inane comic book continuity is my favorite shit-faced 2am party trick! People love me for it!…I think.
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Yes, and the very existence of the nanobot suit made the final showdown in Spider-Man: Far From Home very frustrating for me. For some untold reason (but obviously to make the stakes higher) he chose not to wear that suit, and it would have been boring if he had. In homecoming there was a good reason he went into battle with his homemade outfit, but it would be ridiculous for writers to make up new reasons for each and every new movie.
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Of course in the end it will be shown to be all just a dream of an alternate universe’s separate time-line non-canonical reboot.
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Speaking Scarfolk-esque SF, if Netflixazon are looking for something to compete, may I humbly submit for their consideration Glasshouse by Charlie Stross?
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Look, I enjoy a good Talmudic dispute about canon as much as the next geek. (Homer Simpson is part of the Archieverse, fight me!) But there’s no use fussing about reboots and retcons when it comes to comix.
Their closest cousin in the narrative family tree is oral-culture stories about gods. You just don’t notice the retcons that Zeus/Jupiter went through because they never had to erase his Vietnam storyline to correspond with the audience’s detailed and static understanding of history.
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Coming soon: “Black Widow” and “WandaVision” from Marvel, the leader in necrotainment.
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Nobody’s gonna mention the “Pleasantville” homage in this trailer?
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I had forgotten about that movie. I should re-watch it and see how it holds up.
If you’re going to link to Young Avengers, at least make it the best one Style>Substance.
Mind you, I’m not the only person hoping that WandaVision is a way for Disney to bring in some of the younger characters to replace the current crop of Avengers. Having to replace actors who physically age might mean that the MCU won’t be able to pull the same trick of the comics, of having the exact same characters in stories for 50+ years. They’re going to have to think about introducing new generations.
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Yep, and I tend to enjoy SF/F that does build on what happened in past books without resorting to resetting things. The “problem” with comic books is they try to set all the superheroes by that label (Marvel or DC) in the same “universe”, which is a lot of fun a lot of the time, but… when a SF/F series gets to the point where the author can’t make new interesting stories because the power level has cranked up to the point that the hero is killing gods, or whatever they just…stop writing that series and start another.
(and comics have it harder then a lot of SF/F because they want to be in a world much like our own, but plus it has superheroes…and the longer that world runs the less like ours it becomes because we just don’t have superheroes, or superhero related events. They have the same sort of problem most “Urban Fantasy” has…how the hell does the fantasy element remain hidden? Or how does it not make that world so unlike ours that it is actually “just” SF? (note: I like SF, but many people don’t, so many books try to keep the world as similar as it can))
I get that Marvel would have a hard time letting go of Spiderman or whomever, but even if they were willing to do that and put all their chips on some new super (The Amazing Squirrel Girl anyone?), they can’t just let go of one super, they would have to discard them all, because they are all connected.
So they run alternate timelines, different meta universes, and the occasional big reset.
Lazy…but also, well, I’m not sure what else they can do.
(also many of the alternate timelines are awesome, because they don’t need to not break the world, they do, because they don’t need to leave anyone alive that doesn’t forward the story, anyone can die; Injustice is a cool story, but it wouldn’t be able to happen if it meant Superman was now a bad guy in the mainline comics, or that many superheroes are dead (or also “bad”))
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That was actually more what I was thinking than The Truman Show but didn’t clock it at the time.
